Kidnapped American Journalist Released By Ukrainian Separatists

Kidnapped American Journalist Released By Ukrainian Separatists

American journalist Simon Ostrovsky arrives at a hotel in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk after being freed, on April 24, 2014.

Photo by Alexander KHUDOTEPLY/AFP/Getty Images

Separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine released Vice journalist Simon Ostrovsky on Thursday. Ostrovsky, an American video journalist, was taken prisoner three days ago while working on report for the news organization. Vice News issued a statement saying it was “delighted to confirm that our colleague and friend Simon Ostrovsky has been safely released and is in good health.”

Orstrovsky also Tweeted his release on Thursday:

I'm out and safe. Thank you all for your support. Had no idea I had so many good friends.

Jean-François Bélanger, a correspondent for Canada’s state broadcaster, CBC, reported on Twitter that Mr. Ostrovsky left Slovyansk a short time later in his company. The Vice News correspondent, Mr. Bélanger said, had been beaten and blindfolded when he was seized late Monday but later was treated well… Shortly after Mr. Ostrovsky was released, Vice News published a video report filmed just before his detention in which he subjected Vyachislav Ponomaryov, a separatist who has appointed himself the mayor of Slovyansk, to skeptical questioning. Mr. Ostrovsky, a former BBC and Al Jazeera reporter, appeared to unsettle Mr. Ponomaryov by not accepting at face value his claim that a gun battle near the town over the weekend was an attack by right-wing ultranationalists from Kiev. Following his release, Mr. Ostrovsky told Agence France-Presse that the separatists had specifically sought him out.